Every Town - New Hampshire's Missing Girl - The Strange Case of Laureen Rahn

Episode Date: August 30, 2024

It’s been called one of the most curious cases of A Missing person in New Hampshire history because there are so many questions when it comes to the disappearance of 14 year old Laureen Rahn. 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries 🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT 💀 Exclusive Videos, Podcasts & Perks: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries  👁 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg 👁 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald 👁 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial 🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between.

With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime. Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Everytown has a dark side. It's been called one of the most curious cases of a missing person in New Hampshire's history, because there are so many questions when it comes to the disappearance of 14-year-old Lorraine Ron.

And she was a normal teenage girl at her mom's apartment in Manchester with friends one minute, and then just gone the next. And she left all her belongings behind. There were no odd sounds, no signs of a struggle. And so did she leave on her own accord, or was she perhaps, taken, even convinced to leave with someone we don't know about. And if so, where did they go? Hey guys, it's Andrew. Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Everytown. But today we're looking into the peculiar case of young Lorene Ron, but we'll try to answer

these questions that have been hounding the case from the start. There's a lot of strange pieces of evidence in this one, odd calls and sightings, and it all adds up to creating one puzzling Unsolved Mystery Manchester, New Hampshire is the most bustling city in the entire state of New Hampshire. Because of this, and the fact that it's not the capital, it's also known by the name Queen City. Locals sometimes refer to it as Manch Vegas, because of illegal gambling operations that happened at various businesses here throughout the 1980s and 90s. And back on April 3rd of 1966, Lorraine Rom was born here.

Unfortunately, her parents divorced when she was just an infant, leaving her to be raised by her mother, Judith. Her father didn't really play a large role in her life. When she was four, her and Judith relocated in Miami, Florida, only to return to Manchester six years later. In 1980, they settled into a third-floor apartment at 289 Merrimack Street, right in the heart of the small city. Within a few months, during that spring break at the age of 14, Lerim would disappear for and to this day, her case remains a dark and tragic, unsolved mystery. As a student at Parkside Junior High, Lorraine was known as being a good one. She had a fine relationship with her mother and had an interest in the arts.

Marine was passionate about singing and dancing and dreamt of one day becoming an actress out in Hollywood. She didn't love that small town life, wanted to see what else the world had to offer, unsatisfied by it all. There was something in her that wanted to grow up fast as possible so she could get out, so she spent a lot of time with her friends wandering the streets. It wasn't against drinking and smoking weed, sometimes even talked about just running away to jumpstart her career.

There was a rumor that a man who worked at a local corner store in town was interested in young girls, didn't mind selling alcohol to the minors. You have to remember that in 1980 the legal drinking, age was 18, not 21. However, being 14 is still a bit young to be allowing that, but lus will make a man do crazy things. As her aunt, Dian Penalt summed it up, Lurine wasn't a bad kid or in a dark place in life. She never found herself in any major trouble. She was an angel who hung around with the wrong people for a while. But Lorraine's father out of the picture,

when Judith had become actively involved in the dating scene, entering into several short-lived relationships. During this time, Lorraine often joined her mother and these men on outings. But Judith always made it clear that while men may come and go, Loreen was the most important person in her life. She ensured that Lorraine always felt valued and comfortable, stated that she wouldn't hesitate to end any relationship that made Lorene feel otherwise. On the day she disappeared, it was during April vacation from school.

At the time, her mom was seeing a professional tennis player who often travel long distances for tournament. Normally, Lorraine would tag along with the trio, and they'd spend the day together at the event. Over on this particular day, Lorraine asked if she could just stay home instead. At first, Judith was a bit reluctant, but the girl was growing up fast, and so seeing no real issue with it, decided to allow it.

So on April 26th of 1980, and they said their goodbyes, Judah told her daughter that she loved her and to behave before heading out to the tennis match, leaving Lorene all alone in their apartment. She explained that she would be home later that night and had no clue in that moment that this would be the last time she would ever see Lorene again. With the place to herself, Lorraine spent the day hanging out at her favorite convenience store, restocking shells, likely in exchange for some alcohol. By the time the evening it rolled around, she invited her.

a couple friends over. One male and one female, though, their names have never been released, so we'll call them Sarah and Mark. The three of them drank a six-pack of bruise, drank some wine while watching TV and just hanging out. Around 1230 a.m. on April 27th, Lorraine and Mark were sitting in the living room when they heard voices in the apartment building's hallways. Worried about being discovered, Mark decided to leave through the back door, thinking Lorraine's mother was returning home and they might get in trouble if he was found there. He recalled hearing Lorraine locked the door behind him as he left. This account is supported by another neighbor who also heard voices approaching the apartment around that same time. And all long after that, Lorraine and Sarah

decided to head to bed. And around 1.15 a.m., Judith then returned home with her boyfriend and she immediately sensed that something was off. For one, all the lights were off on all three floors of the apartment building, making the hallway is completely dark, which was not normal at all. When she reached her apartment door, she found it was unlocked. Yeah, and this was not something she would do. She reminded her daughter to lock, but sort of figured she may have forgotten. Judith checked into Lorene's bedroom, where she saw a figure sleeping in the bed. Assuming it was, Lorraine, she quietly left. Moments later, her boyfriend noticed that the back door was unlocked in slightly ajar.

Judith found this very bizarre, since they rarely ever used that way to come and go. She decided to wake Lorene up, and asked why the door was left open, but as she approached the bed, while she discovered it wasn't her daughter at all. It was only Sarah. And Sarah explained that Lorene had initially been in bed with her, but after a while had taken her pillow and blanket to sleep on the couch in the living room. And Judith had seen this pillow and blanket on the couch when she got home. but thought Lorene had just been watching a movie that night on the couch. Unfortunately, due to her intoxicated state, Sarah said she couldn't really remember any further details

and had no idea why Loreen wouldn't be inside the home. A further inspection of the apartment than revealed Lorene's purse, her brand new sneakers, and a recent birthday gift were still in the living room. Judith also noted that it was unlike Lorene to just leave her things lying around like that. None of her belongings, including her money or clothing, were missing, and there were no signs of a struggle occurring in the apartment. Judith reached out to family members, some of which lived in town, hoping that her daughter might be with them. When that led nowhere, her and her boyfriend began searching the neighborhood frantically. With no signs of the girl anywhere.

At around 3.45 a.m., Judith called 911 to report her missing. When officers responded, there unfortunately wasn't an immediate. its sense of concern. As is often the case with teenagers gone missing, especially back in the day. Initially, the police suspected that Lorene had run away, would simply return when she was ready. In fairness to them, there was no sign that foul play or anything bad had actually occurred. Yeah, she had left behind things that any normal runaway would have taken, but maybe she was just gone for the night or two.

Thankfully, they did at least take a statement from Sarah, began gathering the general information about what happened that night. Sarah informed investigators what we all know at this point. That she, Lorene, and Mark had spent the evening drinking and hanging out before Mark left and the girls went to bed. As she had originally told Judith, she mentioned that both she and Lorene fell sleep in the bedroom, but at some point Lorraine got up to sleep on the couch, although it was never mentioned why she might have done this. As several days passed by, no word or sign, of her return, the police began to revise their theory about her just running away. They came to believe that Loreen had likely left the apartment on her own, perhaps to get more

to drink or something to eat, intending to return but encountered some unforeseen trouble. Police also made a bit of a disturbing discovery, but on the night in question, there hadn't been a power outage or blown fuse in the apartment as initially thought. Instead, someone had physically twisted the light bulbs in every single fixture, on every floor and every hallway, just enough for the light to go out. With word of the girl missing, hitting the media, potential lead from a bus company employee came in who reported selling a ticket to a girl matching Loreen's description on the very day she vanished. Add into this, a bus driver from the same company, identified Lorraine from an old photograph, claiming he had dropped her off in Park Square in Boston.

Over weeks later, when shown a more recent photo, the driver expressed his doubt, saying he was no longer certain that the girl he had dropped off as Lorraine. And police tracked down Mark, of course, and took his statement, which closely matched what Sarah had been saying all along, and so he was never considered a suspect. He explained that he left, wanting to avoid being caught drinking with underage girls, which suggests he was at least 18 years old. but no additional information about this man has ever been disclosed. And so, what do you think happened? Did Lorraine leave on her own accord and run into an issue once outside? Did somebody unscrew those bulbs as a way to conceal their identity before coming in and removing Lorraine?

Was perhaps too drunk to fight back, hence no sign of a struggle? Or did she know her abduct her? The convenience store clerk perhaps knowing she was alone for the next. Whatever the case may be, one of the more baffling aspects of this case hasn't even been discussed yet. And it involves a series of strange phone calls made right after the young girl vanished. For about a year after Lorene's disappearance, Judith began to receive mysterious phone calls all around 3.45 a.m. Coincidentally, the same time that Judith had called the police to report Loreneem missing, and these calls were chillingly silent. Each time Judith answered, there was no voice on the other end, only an unsettling silence

as though someone had done it just to listen. On top of everything, these calls would also increase in frequency during the holiday seasons, but the same thing would occur. The line would be dead silent, so was this her daughter, her captor, or somebody else entirely? Then in October of 1980, less than six months after the girl had disappeared, Judith discovered some strange charges that appeared on her phone bill. According to the records, these calls were made under her account from a motel out in Santa Monica, California. And two of them have been made to a motel in Santa Ana.

One was made to a teen assistant's hotline, a place that kids could call with questions about problems they might be having. All three were made back in July, approximately three months after Lerine vanished. Back in the 80s and 90s, calls could be charged. to your home phone number by calling the phone company and entering a pin code. Doing this costs less than placing a collect call. Therefore, whoever made those calls from the hotel somehow got that pin, and since Judith had absolutely no connections to anyone out in California, it made sense that this, in fact, might be your daughter.

After some further digging into the calls, it was discovered that the teen assistance hotline was run by a physician out in California. who claimed no knowledge of Lorene, the call, or even the hotline itself. However, for some unknown reason, five years later, when contacted by the center for missing and exploited children, well, he changed his story. He was much more open about the hotline and the possibility of Lorene contacting them. He said that his wife frequently had runaway girls popped by his house to talk to her for guidance, and one of them may have been from New Hampshire on the same age.

is Lorene. Despite this, and subsequent follow-ups, though, there was no actual proof linking Lorene to any of those people or the calls. Understandably frustrated and angry that the case was out of standstill. The Judah had hired a private investigator in 86 to see what they could find. The detective traveled to California to follow up on the phone calls made back in 1980. Reportedly, the hotel that the phone calls originated from may have been at the center of an adult film industry ring at the time. Supposedly an individual had been operating out of here,

even using it as one of the places he filmed some of his work. However, investigators were unable to link this to Lorraine in any way. Also in 86, a childhood friend of Lorene's, named Roger Muris, received a call from a woman who identified herself as

either Lori or Lorene. Roger wasn't home when the phone rang, so his mother answered the call. The woman on the other end claimed to be Roger's ex-girlfriend. The call didn't last too long, and the caller terminated the conversation without giving out any information, and thus, they've never been identified. Could Lorraine have made any of these calls?

And was she attempting to ask for help, but unable to speak up? And several years later, the call stopped, after Judith remarried and moved to Florida and changed her number. Judith strongly believes that at least the first three calls from California were made by Lorraine. She also suspects that one of Lorraine's friends knows something. She thinks there might have even been another person in her apartment the night of the vanishing, but that Sarah and Mark have chosen to remain silent about it. So while the case has since gone very cold, over the years has been numerous sightings of Lorraine. In 1981, a year after a disappearance, a family member

thought they spotted her at a bus station in Boston, which is around 60 miles south of Manchester. But That sighting was never confirmed. There was no interaction between the caller and this young woman who they thought was Lorraine by the time the authorities could follow up. Well, a woman was gone. On October 5th of 1980, a body was found in Henderson, Nevada. Initially, authorities considered the possibility that this Jane Doe might be Lorraine, given the strong resemblance.

However, after a further investigation, it was confirmed that she was not a match. And there were several others that just turned into dead. ends. The last reported sighting of Lorene occurred in 1988 in Anchorage, Alaska. At this point, she would have been 22 years old. The witness who had seen her claimed she was working as a lady of the night. Over authorities were unable to track down the woman, and the sighting was never confirmed. An unusual turn of events in 1985, Mark, that male friend who spent the fateful night drinking with Loreen tragically died by choosing to leave this earth under his own circumstances. Although he was not considered a suspect originally, this is a piece of information that can't be

ignored. Did he perhaps know something about what happened to Lorraine? Was he involved in feeling overwhelmed with guilt? Desperate for a breakthrough authority started to examine other similar cases in the area that occurred over the years, hoping to find some sort of a connection. The first name that popped up was Rachel Garden, 15-year-old who had disappeared on March 22nd of 1980, from Newton, New Hampshire, just 25 miles southeast of Manchester. As she had been walking home and she vanished,

and much like Lorraine, Rachel's case remains unsolved to this day. In another eerie, similar event, on June 8th, just six weeks after Lorene vanished, Another woman, 25-year-old Denise Denal, went missing from a bar in Manchester. A Denise, who had brown hair and hazel eyes, bore a close resemblance to Lorene. She was divorced, a mother of two living in an apartment, just two blocks away from where Lorraine live with her mom. Like Lorraine and Rachel, Denise has never been found.

What's even more concerning is that decades later, investigators discovered that the suspected serial killer, Terry Rasmussen, who was using the alias Bob Evans, had been residing in the area during that time. Now, he was nicknamed the Chameleon Killer. We have a whole episode about what he did, so check that out if you're interested in hearing more about it. The long and short of it is, though,

and in 2003, Terry pled guilty to murdering his wife in California. He was also linked to the Bear Brook murders, a chilling case involving four female victims found in Bear Brook State Park, just 15 miles north of Manchester. And shockingly, one of these victims was identified as Terry's biological daughter. And Thori suspect he may have been involved in up to six other murders or disappearances, including that of Denise Bowden, who vanished from Goffstown in 1981 and was never found. And Terry died in prison in 2010, though,

taking any information he might have had with him about her disappearance, and possibly Lorraine's to the grave. So in the absence of evidence, we're left only to speculate. Did someone prey on Lorene's desire to move away to Hollywood, only for her to get wrapped up in something much worse? The prevailing theory for the police is the simplest one. Authorities believe Lorene stepped outside her apartment to meet someone and had every intention of returning before she was met with foul play.

Those light bulbs in the apartment being loosened is explained away as an unconnected coincidence. perhaps someone pulling a prank or a disgruntled tenant. After all, back then, there wasn't surveillance cameras on every corner, so if you were going to abduct a girl, why go through all that trouble? It would, in fact, have the opposite effect, as you'd likely have a better chance of being caught spending all that time removing light, so it doesn't add up.

In the end, despite numerous leads and countless efforts to find her, Lorene Ron, remains missing to this day, more than 44 years later. And someone out there undoubtedly holds the crucial information needed to finally uncover what happened of the 14-year-old. But unfortunately, there's so much time has passed. It's not likely we'll ever hear a word from them. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. I hope you all enjoyed it.

If you want more content, check out our Scary Mysteries podcast, YouTube channel, and Patreon, where we have all sorts of other crazy stories for you guys to check out. Thanks so much for tuning in today. and remember, come back next week for another episode filled with scary, strange and mysterious stories. Because you never know. Maybe your town will be next.